The extent of US ‘Secret Wars’ in Africa widens, claims a US website

Washington/Niger: The United States has lost six soldiers in Africa in the last one year. It is said that there were four commandos among them. A website has claimed that these commandos were killed in the ‘Secret Wars’ started by the United States in the African continent. This goes to show the activities of ‘Africom’ the special US command formed for the African continent.

In the month of May, General Thomas Waldhauser had described the ‘Secret Wars’ in apt words during a Pentagon meeting. The statement made by General Waldhauser‘The US commandos are performing their duties in an excellent manner,’ confirm that the US commando operations are being successfully carried out in Africa.

Pentagon has never officially disclosed the number of US commandos or special forces personnel, operational in Africa. There are 4,000 US troops deployed at the US military base under control of the ‘Africa Command’ in Djibouti. Over and above this, there are 800 US soldiers in Niger and 500 in Somalia. It is said that other than the Djibouti base, Niger and Somalia, about 10 African countries have the United States soldiers deployed.

But the US Defence department has not revealed any confirmed information about this. There is no information available as to how many of these soldiers deployed in Africa are commandos or from the special forces. As per the information given by the ex-Pentagon officials, about 8,000 US commandos are deployed in foreign countries. As per the ‘Special Operations Command’ statistics the African deployment accounts for 16% of this total deployment.

The website has claimed that as per the information received from Pentagon and ‘Special Operations Command’ the total number of commandos deployed in Africa is around 1,400. They include Green Berets, Navy SEALs and Special Forces personnel, according to the website. As per the 2006 statistics there were only 60 commandos deployed in Africa. The numbers reached 700 in the year 2014.

With doubling the numbers in 2018 that is within a span of only four years, the claims of Secret Wars by the United States in Africa only get endorsed. While the number of commandos is increasing, the United States has secretly activated its drone base in Niamey, the Niger capital and it is reported that armed drone campaigns have already started from the base.

The information has also been received that the largest US drone base in Africa will be commissioned in the next few months at Agadez in Niger. The base built with an investment of $ 100 million will have MQ-9 ripper drones deployed there and it is claimed that all the US drone campaigns in Africa will be handled from this base.

As per the defence agreement signed with Ghana four months ago, the United States will get access to the airports and the radio spectrum in that country. The United States will be able to land any military equipment unhindered into this country. As against this, the United States will be providing a fund of $ 20 million to Ghana.

While the deployments are being made at this large scale, Pentagon has released a report regarding the African deployment recommending reduction in it. But the indications given by the increasing numbers of special forces, new drone base and the agreement with Ghana only point to the increasing extent of the United States’ secret wars in the African continent.